Spaniards Height in the French Mirror. A Comparative Anthropometric History

This paper analyses the standard of living from the New Anthropometric History perspective and compares human height evolution in France and Spain. Firstly, the importance of the height as an indicator to explore the evolution of the biological standard of living in the long‐term is emphasized. It also shows the early development anthropometric history in France and the recent boom in Spain. This study presents the secular trend with height data of 19‐ 21 year‐old conscripts, corresponding to the cohorts from 1837‐38 to 1980. Our results indicate an increasing trend only interrupted by the deterioration of the height in the mid‐19th century, during the First World War, and in the 1920s. The observed increase of the biological welfare between 1870 and 1915 will continue with the cohorts of 1950‐1970. Finally, this paper analyzes territorial inequalities, the process of regional converge and compares biological welfare with the evolution of French’s height. (full text in Spanish)